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Q Who
' |image= |series= |production=40272-142 |producer(s)= |story= |script=Maurice Hurley |director=Rob Bowman |imdbref=tt0708758 |guests=John de Lancie as Q''', Lycia Naff as '''Ens. Sonia Gomez, Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien, Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan |previous_production=Pen Pals |next_production=Samaritan Snare |episode=TNG B16 |airdate=7 August 1991 |previous_release=Pen Pals |next_release=Samaritan Snare |story_date(s)=Stardates 42761.3. = 42761.9. |previous_story=Pen Pals |next_story=Samaritan Snare }} =Summary= On his way back to his quarters, after Ensign Gomez accidently spills hot chocolate over his uniform in Main Engineering, Captain Picard steps off a turbolift and instead of finding himself in a corridor onboard the Enterprise, ends up on board a shuttlecraft with Q, who quickly cleans the stain from the Captain's uniform, at the controls. Picard demands to be returned to the Enterprise, but Q refuses until Picard agrees to at least hear Q's requests. Q then transports them to Ten Forward, where Guinan, who recognizes him, warns Picard not to trust him. Q reveals that he wants to join the crew to assist them as they push further into unexplored regions of the galaxy, asserting they are not ready for the threats they will encounter. Picard chooses to make their own way into the unknown, and rejects Q's offer. Irritated by Picard's arrogance, Q sends the Enterprise thousands of light years across the galaxy, then disappears. Lt. Commander Data reports that the nearest starbase is over two years away at maximum warp. An agitated Guinan warns Picard to set course for home immediately, but Picard is curious to explore the new area. They discover a nearby planet that shows signs of a previous civilization but has been stripped of all industrial and mechanical elements, and are then met by a much larger cube-shaped vessel which does not answer their hails. Guinan warns Picard that the ship belongs to the Borg, a powerful, cyborg-like race that nearly wiped out her people, scattering the survivors across the galaxy, and again urges Picard to leave immediately. Though Picard orders the Enterprise's shields raised, a single Borg transports into Engineering and begins to probe the Enterprise's computer systems. Lt. Worf initially attempts to incapacitate the intruder with his phaser set on stun, which has no effect, and is forced to increase power to kill the Borg instead. Immediately afterwards, a second Borg appears to continue probing the computer, and proves to be immune to phaser fire. Completing its mission, it strips several components from the dead Borg and disappears. The Borg ship then contacts the Enterprise and demands their surrender. When Picard refuses, the Borg use a cutting beam to slice into the Enterprise's saucer section and remove a cross-section of the ship, killing eighteen people. Picard orders return fire, and the Enterprise appears to disable the Borg ship. Commander William Riker takes an away team to the Borg cube where they find that the Borg are still active but focusing their attention on repairing their ship's damage. The away team returns, and Picard orders that they depart at maximum warp. The Borg ship immediately reactivates and begins pursuit, gaining on the Enterprise. Q appears on the bridge and warns Picard that the Borg will never stop chasing them, and cannot be defeated. Picard attempts to fight back against the Borg to no avail, and finally admits he needs Q's help. Q obliges, returning the Enterprise to its last position in Federation space. Picard, though thankful for Q's lesson, blames Q for the deaths of his crew. Q disappears, but not before reminding them again of their ill-preparedness. Guinan warns Picard that now that the Borg are aware of the Federation's presence, they will be coming. Picard reflects that perhaps Q did the right thing for the wrong reasons by bringing forward their encounter with the Borg, as it has prepared the Federation for what lies ahead of them as they continue to explore. =Errors and Explanations= Internet Movie Database Incorrectly regarded as goofs # As Guinan warns Picard to protect the Enterprise from the Borg, Picard orders the shields raised. Moments later, even though the shields are active, the Borg beam over. (IMDB) Considering that they are technologically much more advanced, it is conceivable that they may have found a way to transport through shields. # After the Borg take the Enterprise's shields down with their shield-draining weapon, they fire one more time. Once again, it appears to hit the shields around the Enterprise, even though they're supposed to be down. The fact that this shot disabled the warp engines with no damage to the ship, indicates that those "shields" were actually the warp field. (IMDB) Numerous appearances of warp fields throughout the series show that they do have roughly the same ellipsoid shape as the shields. Although normally a warp field isn't supposed to glow under fire like the shields do, the Borg torpedo, unlike other energy weapons, was obviously designed to impact the warp field, thus creating a similar glowing effect. Plot holes # Geordi questions whether food should be eaten around the engineering controls, but there is a food dispenser in the middle of the room. Also, the controls are sealed shut. There may be standing orders prohibitibg the consumption of food and drink in certain sections of the room, similar to the 'no food and drink near computers' rule enforced in public libraries. # Data says that the damage done to a planet is identical to the destruction of the Federation outposts in Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Neutral Zone, implying that the Borg were responsible. This means that the Borg already know about the Federation, which seems to contradict Guinan's warning that the Borg will attack, now that they know about the Federation. Even if the outposts were too small to get the interest of the Borg, the Borg would have likely assimilated the people living at the outpost and thus their knowledge. Even if they didn't the outposts would have contained hints that they were part of a much larger and highly advanced civilization. Due to the fact that the Borg attacked both Romulan and Federation outposts they would also have learned that they were dealing with two separate cultures on less than friendly terms with each other. The Borg ship that presumably destroyed the outposts may have been on a reconnaissance mission, before returning to the Delta Quadrant, in order to allow the Collective to analyse the results. Revealing mistakes # When Guinan touches a panel to bring up the image of the Borg Cube on the screen in her office, she never actually touches the panel, and yet the screen comes on anyway. 'This could be due to the presence of an advanced motion sensor system in the panel, which identified the area she was intending to press, thus allowing the computer to fufill the required function.'IMDB entry tt0708758 =Sources= Category:The Next Generation Category:Episodes